Tv Real Winner Of Illinois Race

Candidates Bypass Papers For Ads

March 14, 1988|By Charles Storch.

Last Thursday afternoon, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Bob Dole may have lost the vote of every television sales manager in Illinois when he abruptly canceled most of a $500,000 budget for TV advertising.

By Friday, the Kansan was an also-ran with those salespeople. They had happily turned their attention to a late wave of bookings for weekend and Monday advertising spots from two Democratic presidential hopefuls, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis and Sen. Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee.

Before any ballots are counted in Tuesday`s Illinois primary, television can be declared the undisputed winner. With several campaigns declining to reveal their spending plans, it isn`t certain how much media spending there will be for this primary; but it is certain that the lion`s share will go to TV.

Chicago media executives interviewed last week were divided over whether there is more money being spent for political advertising in this campaign than in some past races.

Ordinarily, when the most high-profile local contest is for clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, it would be expected that spending by local politicians would be down. However, for the first time in recent memory, the clerk`s race involves TV commercials as well as a relatively heavy schedule of radio advertising.

Some of the Democratic presidential candidates are using radio spots, but for the most part it`s been ``zippo for national,`` as Pat Joyce, WBBM-AM`s local sales manager, described it last week.

Aside from Democrat Jesse Jackson, presidential candidates seem to be bypassing radio outlets, including black stations, although those are getting their share of dollars from the clerk`s and other local contests.

``I have sold out my inventory of spots. It`s been unbelievable,`` Hoyett Owens, general manager of WVON-AM, a station strongly identified with the black community, said Friday.

Jose Lamas, general manager of Hispanic station WSNS-TV (Channel 44), also finds this primary unbelievable, but for the opposite reason.

``It amazes me that no one is running (political ads on) our station,``

he said.

Newspapers, especially dailies like The Tribune, seem to have tried harder to get more political advertising for this primary, but they continue to get a relatively small share of most campaign ad budgets.

According to one newspaper sales executive, newspapers are often overlooked by national campaign media consultants. He said they prefer to produce one commercial and air it on hundreds of stations, rather than deal individually with hundreds of newspapers. And, except for community weeklies, many papers` ad rates are too high for politicians in the smaller races.

At least those politicians are buying some advertising. Several presidential campaigns are strapped financially, especially after the primary marathon of Super Tuesday, and they have decided not to spend any money on media for the Illinois primary.

Spokespersons for the campaigns of Illinois Sen. Paul Simon and Pat Robertson said there would be no media buying for this primary, while a campaign spokesperson for Rep. Richard Gephardt said last Thursday that it hadn`t been decided whether to buy ads here.

Those politicians, particularly Simon, are hoping to get plenty of ``free media,`` or news coverage by TV and newspapers.

A campaign spokeswoman for Vice President George Bush said his campaign planned to spend about $400,000 in Illinois, all of it on TV.

A campaign spokesperson for Jackson said $10,000 had been budgeted for TV, all of it in stations outside of Chicago, where rates are cheaper and the candidate less widely known. Another $10,000 was earmarked for radio, all in the Chicago area. Jackson has been running ads in newspapers, but the spokesperson didn`t provide the budget for print ads.

The Dukakis and Gore campaigns declined to comment on their media spending plans. However, some of those plans, along with those of other candidates, are outlined in the public files of Chicago`s television stations. As of Friday noon, the deadline for booking ads for the weekend and Monday, presidential contenders and two of the Democratic candidates for Circuit Court clerk-Jane Byrne and Aurelia Pucinski-paid the following amounts for ads, including those that already have been aired, at the three network-owned TV stations in Chicago: